Detroit Race Riot (1943) - Aftermath

Aftermath

The riots lasted three days and ended once Mayor Edward Jeffries Jr. and Governor Harry Kelly asked President Roosevelt to intervene. Federal troops finally restored peace to the streets of Detroit. Over the course of three days, 34 people were killed, 25 of whom were African Americans in which 17 of them were killed by the police. Out of the approximately 600 injured, black people accounted for more than 75 percent and of the roughly 1,800 people who were arrested over the course of the three-day riots, black people accounted for 85 percent.

After the riot, leaders on both sides had an explanation for the riots. White city leaders including the mayor blamed young black “hoodlums.” The Wayne County prosecutor believed that the leaders of the NAACP were to blame as the instigators of the riots. Detroit's black leaders pointed to other causes ranging from job discrimination, to housing discrimination, police brutality, and daily animosity received from Detroit's white population. Following the violence, Japanese propaganda officials incorporated the event into its materials encouraging black soldiers not to fight for the United States, most notably in a flyer titled "Fight Between Two Races."